Banjo



J. FAVILLA.

BANJO.

APPLICATION man JAN. 15; 1921.

1 405 771 Patented Feb. 7, 1922.

E/ i.2 00900006 5 25 I I ama! 0 INVENTI IR 5, .E. S

ATTORNEYS UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN FAVILLA, or NEW YORK, N. r.

BANJO.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. '7, 1922.

Application filed January 15, 1921. Serial No. 437,385.

7 tion.

The invention relates in general to a banjo, mandolin, drum or similar musical instrument of the type in which a vibrating head of skin or other material is stretched across one edge of a cylindrical rim and the invention particularly relates to an unproved form of this rim.

One of the general objects of the invention is to provide a musical instrument of the type outlined, which will possess improved tone qualities and incidental to this desideratum it is proposed to utilize an auxiliary tone chamber disposed within the outlines of the rim usually found in such instruments. In such constructions, heretofore known, the auxiliary tone chamber is formed of metal, either in whole or in part, which has necessitated the use of some fastening means for securing it to the rim; or the rim itself had to be made of separate parts to provide the chamber, both constructions giving rise to looseness of parts and the resulting introduction of foreign noises when the instrument is played.

Accordingly, the feature of the present invention is to provide a form of rim with an auxiliary tone chamber constructed to eliminate local noises, and to preserve for the auxiliary tone chamber the resonating qualities inherent in the use of wood of the character usually used in the construction of the rim itself.

It is a further incidental object of the invention to minimize the number of parts heretofore found necessary in such constructions and to provide a rim which can be readily manufactured without material additional labor or expense.

I attain these objects simply by grooving the head engaging edge of the conventional form of wooden rim to form an annular groove in the wooden rim and boring through the inner periphery of the wooden rim to provide the usual apertures leading from the interior of the instrument into the auxiliary tone chamber formed by the groove when covered with the vibratory skin head.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in part obvious from an inspection of the accompanying drawings and in part will be more fully set forth in the following particular description of one form of mechanism embodying my invention, and the invention also consists in cer-' tain novel features of construction and combination of parts hereinafter set forth and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a view largely in side eleva tion of a banjo with a portion of the rim broken away to show a preferred embodiment of the invention incorporated therein;

Figure 2 is an enlarged plan view of the mandolin head with a part thereof broken away on the irregular line 22 of Figure 3 to show the tone chamber in plane and Figure 3 is a transverse sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 2 In the following description and in the claims, parts will be identified by specific names for convenience of expression but they are intended to be as generic in their application to similar parts as the art will permit.

In the drawings there is shown a banjo of general conventional form including a body 10 outlined by a wooden rim 11 from one side of which extends the neck 12 and across which neck and head are extended the strings 13. A vibratory skin 14 is stretched across the rim, as shown in Figure 2, laps the outer face of the rim as shown in Figure 3 and has its free outlining edge held in position by a skin hoop 15 engaged circumferentially of the hoop by means of a plurality of hooks 16 held by brackets 17 which in turn are held to the solid wooden portion 18 of the rim by means of through bolts 19.

It is understood that the device as thus far described is of any conventional form well known in devices of this character in which the tone chamber is omitted.

The upper or skin engaging edge of the rim 11 is provided with a relatively deep peripheral grOOVe 2O centrally disposed in the same and spaced from the inner and outer periphery of the band to form a pair of concentrically disposed ribs. The outer edge of the inner rib 21 is inset below the similar edge of the outer rib 22 as shown in Figure 3. The skin 14 is stretched across the free edges of the ribs in a downwardly and outwardly extending direction from the inner periphery of the rim and the edges are rounded to minimize any tendency of the ribs to crack the skin, The

' skin stretched across the outer end of the all woodrim having an annular groove in groove encloses the same and operates to cause the groove to form the desired auxiliary tone chamber. r v The-inner rib 21 is provided with a plurality of circumferentially spaced apertures 23 which place theauxiliary tone chamber in communication with the interior of the in strument;

The peripheral groove is formed readily by a rotarymachine cutter and the aper-- tures are simple drillings so that the expense incidental to the formationof the auxiliary tone chamber after the rim is formed is relatively 'smallcompared to the expense of constructing other forms of such devices.

I m= 1. A' banjo, provided with a one-piece its head-engaging edge to form aninner and an outer concentrically disposed rib, the plane of the free edge of the inner rib being above the plane of the'free edge of the outer rib, "saidinner. rib provided'with a plurality' of V I in position.

2. A banjo, provided with a one-piece all wood rim having an annular groove in its head-engaging edge to form an inner and an outer disposedrib, said inner rib provided with a plurality of apertures spaced from the edge of said-inner rib and acting to place the annular groove in soundcommunication with the interior of the instrument and a head extending across the wood rim and covering the groove.

Signed at New York city, in the county'oi day of December, A.' D. 1920.

' i JonN .F AV ILLA New York and State'of New York, this 21st 7 

